Virtually every “top 100 sites in the world” list includes Easter Island – famous for its huge, mysterious "moai" heads scattered about the island. Easter Island is a tiny speck of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 1000s of km from anywhere (but under Chilean sovereignty). It's complicated and expensive to get to by air, so to actually visit it is quite a privilege.

We arrived at there after three days at sea (from Robinson Crusoe Island) and one and a half days of touring. Unwilling to take the ship's overpriced and overcrowded shore excursions, months earlier Kathy contacted a local tour guide ("AO Tours") and booked for the two days we were to be in port. The guide could take six, so one of our onboard tasks was to find other passengers who would be good company (and share the cost). This turned out to be a great move – not only did we meet some fascinating fellow travelers, but by intentionally going where the ship's tours weren't on a particular day, we encountered few other travelers -- and also got to some "off the beaten path" sites too. Got some much-needed exercise (climbing / hiking), given our food consumption on board.

Many sources talk about the “mysteries” of Easter Island – where did the people come from, what did the statues mean, how did they move them, what happened to that civilization? In fact, the academic community has pretty good answers for all of these, they just don't make as compelling a story. (See “Island at the End of the World”, for example). In abbreviated form: they came from Polynesia, probably the Marquesas, circa 300-800AD. The moai sculptures were specific famous chiefs. A combination of environmental degradation and a “little ice age” in the 1600s caused famine, fighting, and a breakdown of the civilization. Then the Europeans came, and it only got worse. A significant portion of the population was hauled off to work as slaves in the silver mines of Peru. Plus the usual colonial predations like disease, taking of land for raising sheep, etc.

It's a volcanic island – in fact, it reminds us a great deal of the big island of Hawaii – big grassy slopes, steep cliffs where the sea hits the land, volcanic cones and lava flows being the major land features. Rugged, but at the same time, beautiful.

A photo of this quarry is one of the all-time famous Easter Island photos – as we were approaching it, it was almost like driving into a page from National Geographic, or visiting the Easter Island exhibit at Universal Pictures (no, we don't think there is one yet, but... could be!)

Probably the most interesting site on the island is the quarry ("Rano Raraku") where the moai were sculpted. In a big bluff of rather soft volcanic material, what makes it fascinating is that you can see statues in all forms of completion – from the first initial shaping to the completed moai patiently waiting for someone to move them to their designated spot. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, at the quarry.

Moai "in transit" -- that never made it to their destination	In transit; toppled	Scott with carving abandoned "in progress"

We were particularly surprised at the large numbers of horses roaming freely about the island. We heard different stories – that they were wild horses, or that they belonged to people, but just roamed free. They were in big herds; seems more likely that they were just free-grazing. The shocking thing, was that the horses roamed freely among the moai in the quarry, even using their rough surface as a convenient scratching post

In general, the ruins and reconstructions were very poorly signed. There were entrance signs for each park (some with English) but other than that, only small (maybe 6") signs with an arrow and a faded international "don't do this" circle around them -- easily missed. There were no Park Rangers at any of the sites we visited except for one, and it was not unusual for thoughtless visitors to go off the paths and go into areas that were off-limits. Our guide was conscientious about advising us how to "behave" around the statues, neither accidentally damaging them nor desecrating them (for example, one should not step on the "altar" of stones that surrounded most of the statues. Hopefully someone starts paying more attention to managing the ruins, soon. With the building of an airport, and flights between Santiago and Tahiti now stopping at Rapa Nui, there has been a large increase in the number of tourists.

The moai were typically placed on a raised stone platform (left; below right), or altar, near the village of the clan represented by those particular ancestors. During the breakdown of the civilization they were all toppled from their stands (above, center). In two or three places around the island the moai have been reconstructed (below, bottom left) as they once were; the remaining ones are in heaps of rubble. Because of the softness of the material, they are significantly eroded from rain and wind (below, left)

Crumbling moai and altar by the sea

Reconstructed by Japanese group

As the moai were being toppled, a new religious cult formed, that of the "Birdman". In the spring of each year, dozens of young men would compete to be the first one to bring back the first "sooty tern" egg of the season. They would race down a shear cliff, swim out to a tiny motu (islet; below left) where the birds bred, swim back and scramble back up the cliff. The winner would be the Birdman for the year. It was a risky task – many died just getting down off the cliffs. Each clan had built a small shelter (below right) near the cliff, where men from that clan could spend a couple meditative weeks in preparation for the contest.

Life on the island isn't as remote or difficult as one might suspect. There's a flight from Chile most days, and quite a number of cruise ships call here. There are many people with Rapa Nui (original inhabitants) ancestors, but few if any are full-blooded. The schools teach Rapi Nui language in addition to Spanish, and the islanders are very proud of their heritage. Interestingly, many Rapi Nui inhabitants up marrying foreigners. After we had "all aboard", the ship had arranged one of the best traditional dance groups from the island, "Kari Kari". With a dozen dancers and another 10 or so forming a band, they wowed the passengers with synchronized traditional dance. Then the "less traditional" part -- luring "willing" passengers from the ship to join the dance. We were safe -- up on the deck above the festivities looking down -- sipping gin & tonics and taking photos.

Net impression of Easter Island – fascinating, but it's sort of a "one-trick pony" – you see the fascinating moai in slightly different variations, but there isn't an awful lot of other things to see and do on the island. Aside from our passengers, mostly we saw locals and a few young Europeans (there's decent surfing).